Looking Back
by Fangirl Extraordinaire
Summary: The demigods, and gods sit down and look at all of Percy's adventures to help the gods understand how much the demigods help them! (Sorry I can't write summarys :)
1. Chapter 1

_**Hey guys! So, I started this on a page that I admin on facebook so I figured that I would post it on here :) I hope you guys enjoy!**_

* * *

The gods were sitting around the throne room.

Hermes was listening to music, Apollo was writing a terrible Haiku while Artemis was shooting arrows at his head.

While Zeus was yelling at Poseidon a bright white light filled the room.

Two teenagers had appeared in the middle of the throne room.  
All the gods turned to see the girl crumble to the floor, and the boy bend down to help her.

His head snapped up to look at Apollo "What are you doing? Help her!"

Apollo looked up in alarm while Zeus growled "You dare speak to us like that boy?"

"Seriously I've been speaking like this to you for 5 years Zeus! I don't care anymore just help her!" Apollo walked forward while the rest of the gods looked dumbstruck at the boy who was yelling at all powerful beings.

Poseidon stepped forward to save them from being vaporized, "Please state your name an godly parent."

The boy rose as Apollo passed his hand over the girl and spoke an incantation.

"Seriously dad? Your kidding me right?"

"Perseus?"

"Um well, you normally call me Percy but okay. And Annabeth of course." Percy said as he motioned to the unconscious girl.

"Poseidon!" Zeus's voice thundered throughout the room but Percy interceded before anything could happen "Would somebody please explain what is going on?"

Zeus rubbed his brow as if he was getting a headache "That is what I would like to know!"

Athena finally spoke "There's a note. And a book"

Zeus looked angry "And you didn't mention this earlier?"

"Sorry you were bickering."

"Please." Percy sounded annoyed. "I have been through enough in these past few months. Just read the freaking note."

Athena started to read

'Hey guys!  
So Zeus kind of cut off Olympus from the rest of the world, so I figured I would send you guys a little surprise, to show you just how much our little demigod people do for us!  
Enjoy.  
Apollo'

All the gods looked at Apollo.  
"What? It does get boring so you can't really blame me!"

Zeus sighed and looked at Percy "So exactly how old are you?"

"Nearly seventeen."

"Impossible!" Poseidon nearly yelled "you're only 12!"

"Didn't he just say that we were sent back?" Percy pointed out.

"So what's the book called?"

"The Lightning Theif."

"Wonderful." Annabeth groaned. Percy rushed over to her and put her head in his lap.  
"Hey there, how's the ankle?"

"A lot better." She looked around for a moment and then sat up "Where are we?"

"Throne room, and you can thank Apollo. Apparently we were sent back to show Zeus how 'useful' we are."

"So were supposed to read it?"

"It would seem so." Athena replied.

"Oh. Hey mom." Athena smiled at her daughter.

"We'll," Poseidon said "lets get this over with."

He snapped his fingers and a couch appeared. The gods took their seats and Percy and Annabeth sat together.

"We'll then," Apollo said "who wants to read first?"

* * *

REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW... Please :)


	2. Chapter 2

_**Hey again guys! So don't read this is you haven't read MOA as it might contain spoilers... Just don't say I didn't warn you.**_

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson**_

* * *

Zeus called for all the gods to sit down, and Annabeth and Percy took their seats on the couch sitting as close as possible considering all that they had just been through.

A sudden scream came from across the throne room, "How dare you touch my daughter!" Poseidon rolled his eyes, and Aphrodite squealed at the sight of them.

Annabeth turned to look at Percy, "Exactly how far were we sent back?"

"Um, we're twelve here I think?" Percy looked at Athena "So, um yea. In the future were dating..."

Athena looked murderous, but just got up and walked out of the room. Percy looked back at Annabeth who just shrugged her shoulders and said "I'll read first."

"**1 I ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZE MY PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER**"

"AWSOME" Apollo and Hermes laughed and high-fived, but Annabeth ignored them and went on reading

"**Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.**

**If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life**

**Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.**"

Annabeth winced thinking about what had just happened between her Arachne, and how close to death she came. Percy put a comforting arm around her.

"**If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened**"

**But if you recognize yourself in these pages-if you feel something stirring inside-stop reading**

**immediately . You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.**

**Don't say I didn't warn you.**

**My name is Percy Jackson.**

**I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.**

**Am I a troubled kid?**

**Yeah. You could say that.**"

Annabeth and Percy broke into laughter.

"**I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan- twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.**

**I know-it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.**''

"Actually it sound rather pleasent." Athena grumbled as she came back and sat in her throne.

"**But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.**

**Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.**

**I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.**

**Boy, was I wrong.**

**See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind- the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.**"

Apollo and Hermes started cracking up "Mhm, right," Apollo snickered "'accident', nobody blows up a bus by accident."

**This trip, I was determined to be good.**

**All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.**

**Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.**

**Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.**

**"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.**

**Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."**

**He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.**

**"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.**

**"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens."**

**Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get myself into.**

**Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.**

**He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.**

**It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.**

**He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone col-umn with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.**

**Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.**

**From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month.**

**One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."**

"Satyrs." Dionysus grumbled.

**Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.**

**Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"**

**It came out louder than I meant it to.**

**The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.**

**"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"**

**My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."**

**Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture**

**represents?"**

**I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"**

**"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."**

**"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"**

"GOD?" Zeus looked murderous as thunder rumbled around the throne room.

"Oh gods Zeus, take a chill pill." Percy Smirked, and Annabeth started giggling.

"CHILL PILL?"

Annabeth, laughing, continued to read.

**"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.**

**"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"**

**"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.**

**"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."**

**Some snickers from the group.**

**Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"**

**"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"**

**"Busted," Grover muttered.**

**"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.**

**At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.**

**I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."**

**"I see." Mr. Brunner looked disappointed. "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"**

**The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doo-fuses.**

"Such a technical term there Seaweed Brain."

Hephaestus made a face, "As bad as my wife, pet names." Athena bubbled with rage but Percy ignored them both.

"Hey, this was before I met you Wise Girl." Annabeth smiled and kept reading.

**Grover and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson."**

**I knew that was coming.**

**I told Grover to keep going. Then I turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?"**

**Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go- intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand**

**years old and had seen everything.**

"Maybe just a tad older." Annabeth laughed

"Hey! Did I sound like I knew that I was talking to the original Chiron?"

"Yes because there have been soo many."

"Why don't you just read." Percy said defeated.

**"You must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told me.**

**"About the Titans?"**

**"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."**

**"Oh."**

**"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept**

**only the best from you, Percy Jackson."**

**I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.**

**I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No-he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.**

"You still don't know all the facts let alone how to spell them." Annabeth laughed again.

"Why does it have to be in my point of view?" Percy grumbled.

"Because you're the one who is constantly in trouble." Annabeth said serious now giving a pointed look at Hera.

"You better watch where your glaring young lady." Hera said pointedly.

"I'll glare where I want to you little-"

"Stop it. Now," Percy cut them off. "You," he pointed to Hera "Need to shut up because I'm at my wits end with you. And if I can beat the God of war I'm pretty sure I can beat your highness." He added when she opened her mouth to make a rebuttal. "And you," he pointed at Annabeth "I love you to death, but lets not start this now. Not after everything." Annabeth just nodded as the Gods stared at him in awe, all except for Athena who was fuming.

"You dare let him speak to you that way Annabeth?"

"And you," Percy gave a pointed look to Athena "It took you five years before you were okay with me and Annabeth, and I hate to have to do this to you, but you're about to give over it in about five minutes. I've been to tartarus and back with her. Literally. And I'm not about to have some pissed off goddess snapping at me the entire time. So. Get. Over. It. Now if you would please continue reading Annabeth." Athena looked at Percy shocked, while Poseidon smirked at Athena.

**I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.**

**He told me to go outside and eat my lunch.**

**The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.**

**Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurricane blowing in.**

**Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.**

**Grover and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school-the school for loser freaks who couldn't make**

**it elsewhere.**

**"Detention?" Grover asked.**

**"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean-I'm not a genius."**

**Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep**

**philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"**

Annabeth laughed and said "Good old Grover." Percy just shook his head smiling. He missed the old Satyr.

**I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.**

**I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a ****taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.**

**Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.**

**I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of me with her ugly friends-I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists-and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.**

**"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray- painted her face with liquid Cheetos.**

**I tried to stay cool. The school counselor had told me a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.**

Poseidon raised his eyebrows leaning forward to hear what would happen. Annabeth just laughed, "A wave? Really Perce?"

Percy smiled, "I guess I knew even when I didn't."

**I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain, screaming, "Percy pushed me!"**

**Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.**

**Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"**

**"-the water-"**

**"-like it grabbed her-"**

**I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again.**

"Of course, somebody gets pulled into a water fountain and your worried about detention." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Hey! In my defense I was already on probation, I was worried about getting expelled at that point!"

Zeus just looked at Poseidon and raised an eyebrow, Percy was strong before he even knew how to control his powers.

**As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on me. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if I'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, honey-"**

**"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."**

**That wasn't the right thing to say.**

**"Come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.**

**"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed her."**

**I stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for me. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.**

**Apollo and Hermes couldn't contain themselves, they busted out laughing.**

"If that's what I think it is!" Apollo chuckled.

"To death!" Hermes said which made them both laugh harder until a glare from Annabeth made them fall silent.

**She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.**

**"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.**

**"But-"**

**"You-will-stay-here."**

**Grover looked at me desperately.**

**"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."**

**"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at me. "Now."**

**Nancy Bobofit smirked.**

**I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare. **

"Which is actually pretty intimidating when you're on the wrong side of it," Percy gave her a questioning look as if he was asking when she saw it. "You and Thalia, whew I swear I thought one of you was going to turn into a dolphin and the other into a lightning rod." Zeus was about to ask how Percy knew Thalia but Annabeth continued reading.

**Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.**

**How'd she get there so fast?**

**I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things.**

**I wasn't so sure.**

**I went after Mrs. Dodds.**

**Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between me and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.**

**I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.**

**Okay, I thought. She's going to make me buy a new shirt for Nancy at the gift shop.**

**But apparently that wasn't the plan.**

**I followed her deeper into the museum. When I finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.**

**Except for us, the gallery was empty.**

**Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.**

**Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...**

**"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.**

**I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."**

**She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"**

**The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.**

**She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt me.**

**I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am."**

**Thunder shook the building.**

**"We are not fools, Percy Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."**

**I didn't know what she was talking about.**

**All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.**

**"Well?" she demanded.**

**"Ma'am, I don't..."**

**"Your time is up," she hissed.**

Annabeth gasped and then read ahead, needing to know what happened to him.

"Annabeth," Percy said as she gripped the book harder. He put a hand on her shoulder "Calm down, I'm fine." After another minute she sighed and continued reading.

**Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, feathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice me to ribbons.**

Poseidon gasped and looked at his son questioningly, Percy nodded gravely.

**Then things got even stranger.**

**Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.**

**"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.**

**Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.**

**With a yelp, I dodged and felt talons slash the air next to my ear. I snatched the ballpoint pen out of the air, but when it hit my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword-Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.**

**Mrs. Dodds spun toward me with a murderous look in her eyes.**

**My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.**

**She snarled, "Die, honey!"**

**And she flew straight at me.**

**Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.**

**The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!**

**Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching me.**

**I was alone.**

**There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.**

**Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but me.**

**My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or ****something.**

**Had I imagined the whole thing?**

**I went back outside.**

**It had started to rain.**

**Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still ****standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends. When she saw me, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."**

**I said, "Who?"**

**"Our teacher. Duh!"**

**I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.**

**She just rolled her eyes and turned away.**

**I asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.**

**He said, "Who?"**

**But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at me, so I thought he was messing with me.**

**"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."**

**Thunder boomed overhead.**

**I saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, reading his book, as if he'd never moved.**

**I went over to him.**

**He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."**

**I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.**

**"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"**

**He stared at me blankly. "Who?"**

**"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."**

**He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"**

"Done," Annabeth announced. "Who wants to read next?"

"I will." Apollo offers.

* * *

Well I hoped you guys enjoyed! Sorry for not updating in a while but school is FINALLY out so I'll have a lot more free time on my hands and will be able to update a lot more.

Now, if you would please,

Review

Review

Reivew!

:)


	3. Chapter 3

_**You guys asked for another chapter, so here you go :) If you didn't know, I will be switching between my two stories on updates. This one and 'The After War' if you haven't checked it please do :)**_

_**Enjoy!**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson...**_

* * *

**"Three Old Ladies Knit Socks of death"** Apollo read.

"Well that doesn't sound pleasant," A familiar voice chuckled behind them, and Percy and Annabeth's heads whipped around.

"Grover! Thalia!" Annabeth exclaimed as she lept to her feet.

"Hey! What are we? Chopped liver?" It was the high-pitched voice of Piper with Jason trailing along behind her.

"Jason, Piper!" Percy smiled as he joined the group. Piper nearly tackled them in a hug before punching them both.

"I swear if you two every do anything like that again!" She screamed at them

"Hey now! It's like we had a choice!" Percy defended.

"Annabeth didn't, YOU DID."

"Tasteful joke Pipes. Like I'm going to let her go down there alone, especially with her ankle. Over my dead body."

"That very well may have been the case!"

Thalia, Grover, and Jason chuckled while they watched her face turn a violent shade of red. Annabeth came and hugged her, "We are sorry for that."

Piper huffed but didn't have a chance to say anything more because of the fuming gods behind them.

"Would someone please care to introduce you four before my brother has a heart attack?" Poseidon asked.

"Of course, I'm sorry. I'm Piper, child of Aphrodite." She beamed at her mother, who smiled back.

"I'm Thalia, daughter of Zeus. Lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis." Zeus gaped at his daughter.

"I'm Grover, Lord of the Wild, and a member of The Council of Cloven Elders."

"And I'm Jason son of Jup-,"

"Jason, you should probably stay greek here." Percy pointed out.

"Sorry, habit man. I'm Jason son of Zeus."

"You are Roman?" Zeus asked skeptically.

"Yes, I'm a praetor at Camp Jupiter. Anyway, what are we doing here? I doubt Percy and Annabeth got pulled out of tartarus for nothing."

"Wait. WHAT?" Poseidon and Athena yelled at the same time.

"Oh nothing." Annabeth said as she shot Jason a look. "We're going through Percy's old quests."

"Ha! This is gonna be awesome!" Thalia laughed.

Zeus conjured up some more chairs and the demigods sat down and Apollo started to read.

**"I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty-four/seven hallucination was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me. The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr-a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.**

**Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would st are at me like I was psycho.**

**It got so I almost believed them-Mrs. Dodds had never existed.**

**Almost.**

**But Grover couldn't fool me.**

**When I mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But I knew he was lying.**

**Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.**

"I told Chiron it was stupid to keep you in the dark, but he didn't want you in anymore danger."

"Yeah because that worked out so well." Percy rolled his eyes while Poseidon shot him a worried look. He didn't like this, it sounded as if Percy was always in danger.

**I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.**

**The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.**

**I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs.**

**I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends.**

**I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.**

**Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot.**

Everyone started laughing.

**I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good.**

**The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: I would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.**

**Fine, I told myself. Just fine.**

**I was homesick.**

**I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.**

**And yet… there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.**

**I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.**

**As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.**

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. We need to write this down in history." Thalia said seriously.

"What?" Percy asked.

"You actually studied."

"Oh shut up pinecone face. Besides, I think I'm in enough history books at this point."

"Ain't that the truth." Jason said, and they bumped fists. All the gods look at the two boys questioningly but Apollo just continued to read.

**I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.**

**The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room.**

**Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one-eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.**

**I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.**

**I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.**

**I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.**

**I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.**

**I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.**

**I was three steps from the door handle when I heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "… worried about Percy, sir."**

**I froze.**

**I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear your best friend talking about you to an adult.**

**I inched closer.**

**"… alone this summer," Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-"**

**"We would only make matters worse by rushing him," Mr. Brunner said. "We need the boy to mature more."**

**"But he may not have time. The summer solstice deadline- "**

**"Will have to be resolved without him, Grover. Let him enjoy his ignorance while he still can."**

**"Sir, he saw her… ."**

**"His imagination," Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that."**

**"Sir, I … I can't fail in my duties again." Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean."**

Grover looked down at his hooves.

"Hey," Thalia said putting a hand on his shoulder, "We all turned out alright." He smiled at her gratefully and motioned for Apollo to continue reading.

**"You haven't failed, Grover," Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy alive until next fall-"**

**The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.**

**Mr. Brunner went silent.**

**My heart hammering, I picked up the book and backed down the hall.**

"Nicely done seaweed brain."

"What? Wouldn't be shocked if your best friend was talking about keeping you alive until next fall?"

"Okay, I'll give you that much."

**A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than my wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.**

**I opened the nearest door and slipped inside.**

**A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muffled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.**

**A bead of sweat trickled down my neck.**

**Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing," he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice."**

**"Mine neither," Grover said. "But I could have sworn …"**

**"Go back to the dorm," Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow."**

**"Don't remind me."**

**The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.**

**I waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.**

**Finally, I slipped out into the hallway and made my way back up to the dorm.**

**Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.**

**"Hey," he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"**

**I didn't answer.**

**"You look awful." He frowned. "Is everything okay?"**

**"Just… tired."**

**I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.**

**I didn't understand what I'd heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.**

**But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about me behind my back. They thought I was in some kind of danger.**

**The next afternoon, as I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.**

**For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about my eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.**

**"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's … it's for the best."**

**His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.**

**I mumbled, "Okay, sir."**

**"I mean …" Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you. It was only a matter of time."**

**My eyes stung.**

**Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in me all year, now he was telling me I was destined to get kicked out.**

**"Right," I said, trembling.**

**"No, no," Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say … you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-"**

**"Thanks," I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."**

**"Percy-"**

"Cue Percy, master of over-reactions!" Thalia laughed.

"Oh shut up pincone face." He sighed.

**But I was already gone.**

**On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.**

**The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.**

"I wouldn't go that far." Piper laughed

**They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.**

**What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.**

**"Oh," one of the guys said. "That's cool."**

**They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.**

**The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as I had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.**

**During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.**

**Finally I couldn't stand it anymore.**

**I said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"**

**Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha-what do you mean?"**

**I confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.**

**Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"**

**"Oh … not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"**

**He winced. "Look, Percy … I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"**

**"Grover-"**

**"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and …"**

**"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."**

**His ears turned pink.**

**From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer.**

**The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:**

**Grover Underwood**

**Keeper**

**Half-Blood Hill**

**Long Island, New York**

**(800) 009-0009**

**"What's Half-"**

**"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um … summer address."**

**My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.**

**"Okay," I said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."**

**He nodded. "Or … or if you need me."**

**"Why would I need you?"**

**It came out harsher than I meant it to.**

**Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you."**

**I stared at him.**

**All year long, I'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without me. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me.**

**"Grover," I said, "what exactly are you protecting me from?"**

**There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.**

**After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.**

**We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.**

**The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen. I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.**

"Oh crap," Annabeth said as she grabbed Percy's hand. "Is this it?"

"Yeah."

**All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.**

**The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.**

**I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.**

**"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"**

**"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"**

**"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"**

**"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all."**

**The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.**

**"We're getting on the bus," he told me. "Come on."**

**"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."**

**"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back.**

**Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.**

"Wait, hold the phone. How are you still alive?" Piper asked.

"I'm sure it'll explain it in the books."

"Percy." Poseidon looked pale.

"Chill dad, I'm right here."

**Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for-Sasquatch or Godzilla.**

**At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.**

**The passengers cheered.**

**"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"**

**Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.**

**Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.**

**"Grover?"**

**"Yeah?"**

**"What are you not telling me?"**

"**He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Percy, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"**

**"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like … Mrs. Dodds, are they?"**

**His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw."**

**"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn."**

**He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost-older.**

**He said, "You saw her snip the cord."**

**"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.**

**"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."**

**"What last time?"**

**"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."**

**"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"**

**"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."**

**This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.**

**"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.**

**No answer.**

**"Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"**

**He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.**

"Done!" Apollo announced.

"Good I'm starved." Percy said.

"Of course, you are seaweed brain."

"I'm thinking of having some-" But he stopped short when he saw a young girl, about 8 or 9, wandering around. She had long brown hair and stormy gray eyes.

"Excuse me, could someone please help? I'm looking for my parents."

"Um," Percy was at a loss for words, she obviously had to have been a demigod to get in here, but kids didn't just wander randomly into the throne room. "Do you know who your parents are?"

"Of course, I'm Zoe. Daughter of Annabeth Jackson, Goddess of Arcitecture, and Perseus Jackson, God of Sea Creatures."

Percy and Annabeth, looked at each other before quickly leaving the kitchen.

* * *

**Well that is a bit of a cliff hanger if I do say so myself :)**

**Review: Tell me what you think of it**

**Follow: To keep up with my new posts**

**Favorite: That way I know you love it :)**

**Love you guys, until next time. Muah!**


	4. Chapter 4

**So guess who's like the worst person in the world? Thats right, this girl... sorry that I haven't updated in FOREVER! Band started and once band starts I don't really get to have a life! But don't worry! Now that school's back in and I'm getting back into the groove of things I should be able to update ALOT more :) Thanks for sticking with me :)**

_**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Percy Jackson, I just wish I did!**_

It took the better part of an hour to find Percy and Annabeth who were in deep discussion in one of the gardens outside of the throne room.

"There you two are!" Thalia growled at them "We've been trying to explain things to your little brat but she's just a bit confused."

"First of all she's not a brat," Percy said glaring at Thalia "Second of all we're trying to process the situation of, I dunno, us having a KID."

"You guys should at least talk to her. She does know that you two are her parents." Annabeth's head snapped up.

"What?"

"Well I mean you are her parents and you are gods."

Annabeth nodded to Percy and they got up and headed back to the throne room. They found the little girl skipping around the throne room in her sun dress humming. They walked over to where some of the gods were standing in the middle of the throne room, and could hear Athena arguing with Apollo.

"This has to be the single, most moronic stunt you've ever pulled!"

"Can I please remind you that I haven't done it yet?"

"It doesn't matter!" Poseidon said loudly "Can we please point fingers later Lady Athena? We have more important matters to worry about, like the fact that our grand daughter is running around the throne room!"

"Can you please not use that word?" Annabeth asked looking queasy.

Athena and Poseidon turned to look at them, and Athena glared at Percy.

"Have you talked to her at all?" Percy asked.

"Only enough to know that she knows that you two are her parents, you're both gods, and Percy, you have a beard." Piper explained

"Out of everything, she remembers I have a beard? That sounds like my kid alright." Both Annabeth and Percy looked queasy.

"Um, hey Zoe," Annabeth called, "Could you come over here for just a minute?"

The little girl skipped over to where they were standing and pulled something out of the pocket of her dress. "Here you go, I was going to give it to you earlier but you guys left."

She held out a small piece of paper, Annabeth took it out of her hand "I'm sorry about that, we weren't really expecting it."

Zoe just shrugged and went back to her skipping. Annabeth looked down before losing all the color in her face.

"What is it?" Percy asked. She handed him the folded note which was addressed to _Mr. & Mrs. Jackson_.

"Apollo, I swear before this is over you will be strangled."

"Hey!" Apollo protested holding his hands up, "I haven't done it yet!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes and took the note from Percy to read it aloud.

**_Mr. & Mrs. Jackson,_**

**_Heh, hope you like the little surprise I'm sending you. Don't get your parental authority caught in a twist just yet. She'll only be with you for a chapter. _**

**_Happy Reading!_**

**_Yours in all of his godly awesomeness,_**

**_Apollo_**

"See! I'm not that bad! I'm only leaving her with you guys for a chapter!" Apollo said defensively.

"Yes but it's the fact that you sent her to us AT ALL." Percy yelled at him.

"Yep, you're daddy. You yell just like that when you get mad." Zoe giggled.

"You know," Piper said, "You guys could figure out about your future if you wanted to, I'm pretty sure she would know everything."

"As much as we would love to, the older us is probably freaking out." Annabeth told her, "Especially Percy," She said with a slight grin which he returned with a glare, "Either way we probably need to send her back. I mean we've already learned that we end up together, and that we become gods. I think that's all I need to know." She smiled at Percy and he took her hand, leading her back to where they were sitting.

"Okay! So who's reading next?"

* * *

_**So like I said earlier, I'm SUPER sorry that I haven't updated in a while. Band steals all my free time, even over the summer! But hopefully once football season starts I'll start having some free time on my hands! So I'm now going to go update 'The After War' which I HIGHLY recommend you go check out if you haven't yet :) **_

_**Happy reading!**_


End file.
